122 comments:

What's worse is that the reporter called Bush a dog. I guess it would insult all Arabs if Bush responded with "Thank you. I only wish I was half as good as my dog, or half as good as my dog thinks I am." Any culture that looks down on dogs is seriously screwed up.

The reporter knows deep down that he can throw his shoe at Bush only because of Bush and it shames him. He can't forgive Bush for that.

Hoosier Daddy said..."That someone would throw a shoe at the President?"

Frisk every audience for loafers!

It's like a case I was reading last week that arose from the "failure" of a supervisor to ask if a security guard was clothed when he locked himself on the roof of an Indianapolis federal building. She didn't think to ask "were you clothed," so her report was silent on his sartorial state, an omission that lead to the filing of false reporting charges, her dismissal, and ultimately an FTCA against the United States. Some things are just so out there that you can't predict them; someone trying to shoot the President is predictable, but someone throwing a shoe at him - or birthday suiting up while locked on the roof of a federal building - isn't the sort of thing that would occur to a reasonable, balanced mind.

Non story. I like that Bush can artfully dodge a thrown shoe (it would've been better had he caught it and thrown it back). It's nice that Iraqis are now wealthy enough to have surplus shoes for throwing, and the freedom to do so (although I doubt this reporter is now free).

I think Obama could also dodge a shoe -- he plays bball, and has some reflexes because of that. But if you want to churn along your irrational Obama hatred then by all means go with the teleprompter gag.

Hmmm... one disgruntled individual does something, and because it involves Bush, it gets front page headlines.

Yet, a whole etnic group in Iraq - the Kurds - are experiencing economic and social growth because of the freedoms found from unseating Hussein, and the only person covering it - Michael Totten - needs to beg for reader contributions through PayPal to fund his independent reporting, since no newspaper seems to want to cover that.

Maybe it's just me, but I find that whole reportage priotization on the part of the general news media to be just a little screwed up.

Rich B said: "I'll bet that guy would have nailed Obama before he could read "Duck!" on his prompter."

Actually if anyone had dared throw a shoe at the One, he would have had no need to duck... the shoe would have simply halted itself in mid-flight, briefly hanging suspended in the air before drifting gently to the earth, while Obama smiled beatifically at his frustrated assailant. Like the inanimate objects which refused to strike Baldur in Norse legend.

I'm with Madison Man on this one. The main thing I see is that W has sufficiently good reflexes to dodge a shoe, and enough spine to not dive to the floor. He could have come around the podium and given the man a personal demonstration of the Bush Doctrine, but he is sufficiently presidential after 8 years that decorum must have prohibited that ass whuppin.

On the one hand, it is funny. On the other hand, it demonstrates what I was illustrating with my earlier comment, which at heart was a criticism of the choice of focus the news media seems to collectively make. I know that the Afghan press conference is news, and I don't object to the selection of humor to headline the story... but all the same, I worry that in the overall scheme of things, this is simply another example of ignoring much that deserves coverage to harp on a single, isolated incident that doesn't necessarily summarize or epitomize what Iraq generally thinks of Bush.

Then again, you can make the argument that the shoe throw epitomizes/summarizes what much of the media thinks of him... maybe that's why they're continuing to make reference to it... hmmm...

"J said... Regardless of what you think of W, it is a little worrisome the guy was able to throw a second item at a US President before he was full of 9MM holes."

Oh, I disagree (with all due respect). I think it speaks well of the Presidential bodyguard that they can distinguish between a mere annoyance and an actual threat so fast.

What would be worse, seeing them neither flinch nor bat an eye while obviously watching the whole time? Or overreacting by tackling the President down to the ground while opening fire on the now one-shoed guy? Could you imagine the field day reporters would have hitting their thesauruses (thesaurusai?? ;) ) for all the possible synonyms for "overreaction"?

Hey Madison Man I have a lot of respect for you as a reasonable liberal guy. I only saw clips of the Patterson stuff as I don't watch SNL either. It is big news in New York this weekend. Now you know I will go pretty far to make a joke so I let most things go. This was pretty bad but I guess still in bounds. You have to realize your guy is going to get roughed up a bit. It's too early to take umbrage, ya know what I mean.

Just wait till Obama throws the gays and lesbians under the bus. They will be throwing a whole shoe store of Bikernstocks at him.

I think it's an interesting form of protest. I don't condone violence, but this is much preferable to the more common reaction that we associate with this part of the world. If we could get everybody in the region to throw shoes at each other instead of shooting and blowing each other up, the world would be a better place.

Trooper, if you can tell me how a response to ODS should differ from a BDS response, I would be grateful. I realize it's hard for you to type with tears in your eyes because of what happened in Dallas, but I am the epitome of patience in this regard.

Trooper, if you can tell me how a response to ODS should differ from a BDS response, I would be grateful.

Maybe wait till there is a comment that warrants the label of ODS? Seem's to me Rich B's comment about the teleprompter ranks up there as a joke.

Bush on the other hand has been referred to as Hitler, a genocidal murderer who approves of torture and has destroyed the Constitution and turned the US into a police state. Had BDS been reduced simply to pretzel jokes and his inarticulate use of English, I doubt the term BDS would ever been coined.

If an Obama presidency means we can't poke fun or criticize him then we're officially over as a free society. Everything else is mopping up.

I think many people (excluding of course AL, GM and M/LOS) will miss Bush's jokes after continued exposure to the Humorless One. "I saw his sole" has a nice dash of self-deprecation given his remarks about Putin, way back when.

I don't think BHO does self-deprecation - it would be wrong. But that won't stop the little people from making a few cracks. There will be many opportunities.

You prove my point Madison Man. I am not worried at all that the WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK GIANTS lost on the road. You know you can't win every road game and we have a pretty good road record. I am confident in my team and feel we will win. So I can take any jibes in stride while giving them right back (that's why I always use the cowboy from the Village People when referring to those cowboys, Not that there’s anything wrong with that). Missing our best running back and best wide receiver we lost to a team at home with its back to the wall in a game that doesn't really matter to us because we clinched the division. I have faith in my guys.

You see it's your boy's turn in the barrel and he is going to get it a lot harder than the kid gloves he has been handled with by the partisan media so far. His own team is going to savage him when he starts throwing them overboard. He better toughen up. He seems a humorless sort. I like what he's done so far but I just hope that his acolytes can take a joke.

Uh, Trooper? If your O-line uses the fact that the Giants have clinched the division as an excuse to roll out the red carpet for DeMarcus Ware et al., you may have a bigger problem than just a couple of division losses.

A journalist throwing a shoe at Uncle Saddam would have been through the wood chipper within 24 hours.

Reminded me of the wood chipper scene in Fargo. Sorta like what them Romosexual COWBOYS did to the stink finger Giants last night. Eli was munching more carpet than Ellen Degeneres gets in a year! Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just sayin. I think Demarcus Ware got a woody on every 3rd down and long, he was delivering some big love to Mr Eli. Not that there's anything wrong with that either.

Hey I am not worried. Sometimes when a game goes south the problem just compounds itself. When things go against you play and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Then you come back the next game. But you have to look at the whole picture. We have a bye and are in the playoffs. Eli responds when the money is on the line. Romo didn't get done in the playoffs. Plus we smacked him around a lot in that game.

The Giants are not going to surrender just because of a few setbacks. What do you think we are, Democrats?

The Giants are not going to surrender just because of a few setbacks. What do you think we are, Democrats?

Nahhh, I think the only Democrats who watch football are Redskin fans. I mean you hate the Cowboys and I can appreciate that, but you don't HATE the Cowboys. On the Cowboy haters list I think it goes like this:

Redskins HATE the Cowboys.Philly Hates the Cowboys.Giants hate the Cowboys.All other fans just think the Cowboys suck except the Steelers who can rightfully mock the Cowboys. The rest of America loves America's Team except O'Bama who thinks football is soccer and loves David Beckham who will soon be appointed as a foreign relations adviser.

Look how Bush just stood there as the reporter is taking off his shoe, and how he ducks BEFORE the shoe is thrown. He even smiles as he's ducking. Then he just stands there, for an entire second, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's as if he KNEW this would happen, and the shoes would not actually hit him. And did you see the footage comparing different newscasts of the event? The translations from one tape to the next are different because one station got the pre-written translation in advance, and the other one didn't. This is just like 9/11 - It was planned in advance!!!!

AJ, you beat me to it. Obama lacks the comfortable self-confidence Bush has. You can tell in how rehearsed and careful he is, and you certainly could tell when he confronted MoDo for making fun of his GIANT EARS HA HA HA.

... actually, I hear the Republicans in congress are, at this very moment, preparing an amendment that will make it illegal for a shoe thrown by a journalist to come into contact with the flag. Heck, they have nothing else better to do.

Leaving Bush out of it and focusing on the shoe-thrower, an adult who will do this is simply an asshole. Don't bother telling me that I don't understand the culture. If these childish, ignorant people could govern themselves this country would have been saved a lot of trouble.

Trooper, I bet I've been a Giant fan longer than you (going way back to the days when they wore red uniforms). I'm very concerned by what I've seen the last two weeks.

They miss Brandon Jacobs terribly. They lost to the suckaloid Eagles (who have nothing but Brian Westbrook) for God's sake.

"What would be worse, seeing them neither flinch nor bat an eye while obviously watching the whole time? Or overreacting by tackling the President down to the ground while opening fire on the now one-shoed guy?

Your entire post assumes the agents know things they couldn't possibly know. What would be worse is this guy killing everybody in the room because agents "can distinguish between a mere annoyance and an actual threat so fast", but be wrong.

"Could you imagine the field day reporters would have hitting their thesauruses (thesaurusai?? ;) ) for all the possible synonyms for "overreaction"?"

In general, journalists are pacifist rabble who can spout the crap they do because better people than them will protect them using violence if necessary. As long as the word gets out that this guy died in a lead storm, I don't care what else the press has to say. Immediate, overwhelming deadly force is something everybody, regardless of cultural background, understands.

Politicians say that everything that happens in politics is planned. Now, the question is who planned it? Did Bush plan it? I don't think so but if he did, it would explain why the secret service reacted slowly and how admirable they tolerated the act.

Second, Bush reacted with lightning speed, he was so alert it seemed like he was expecting it... hahaha, damn fast reaction.

So, who wins here? Only time will tell, just wait when those people in the muslim world realizes that if they can do that to Bush, they can do that to their own leaders who oppress them. Seems to me Bush will be gone in a month but his legacy will be seen in countries that will be emboldened to fight for freedom.

Kidding aside, I think as a whole, it will leave something positive for the oppressed but not good for arab leaders.

"..But all said and done, we have to accept it, throwing a shoe has never gone up the charts like it has now, and Facebook is looking at ways to get back its 1st position on the ‘People Fads’ list...Read the full article here:http://pranavbhalla.blogspot.com/2009/04/shoe-away.html